I have had surgery to remove growth have a 1mm margin. considering radiation.
Anyone have experience?

Welcome to OCF. I have seen only a few members over the years with a similar diagnosis. Most of our members have their cancer located either at the base of their tongue or lateral tongue.

Im assuming your tumor was cancerous. Treatment decisions are never easy. I would suggest getting a second opinion. If possible at a Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC). CCCs use a team based approach so all the specialists are on the same page. You want to take care of this correctly the first time so you dont have to continue getting treatments if they arent necessary or worse, face a recurrence if mishandled. The main OCF pages have tons of info to read and educate yourself about this disease.

Best wishes!


OCF Main Pages... Treatment

Welcome Mike D! I didn't have lip cancer, but tonsil located in the oropharynx, which has some aspects in common with lip cancer. What do your doctors think since you're considering radiation? 1-5mm are close margins, and greater than 5mm are clear margins, and less than 1mm are positive margins, so you're right on the line with 1mm. Surgery alone is often the treatment with T1 tumors, like you had, but negative prognostics, can change that and need for radiation. With lip cancers brachytherapy, an internal radiation, can be done at facilities that have experience with it or IMRT, a common form of external beam radiation.

Below are the NCCN Guidelines for Head and Neck Cancer, which include lip cancer, that had its own treatment guideline. These are 2013 Guidelines so if you want the 2015 update you'll have to register to the NCCN sight. Not many changes
occur year to year, but I don't often look in this section to say what was.

As mentioned, no harm in getting a 2nd opinion, and most often many patients are glad they did, even often times staying with who they originally saw, but sometimes not, and that's good too.

http://oralcancerfoundation.org/treatment/pdf/head-and-neck.pdf

Good luck.

Hi Mike. My husband had a lesion on his lower lip. It was scc and It was in situ He had it removed with surgery and 1 month later had a total lip shave. Nobody ever mention scans or any further treatment to us. We let it go never gave it another thought and 8 months later my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 soft pallet and tonsil cancer It was devastating and no one will ever be able to convince me that the lip was not related to the throat. Get another opinion and watch for any changes.